Practical home cooking recipes labeled by skill level
These recipes are designed to help you cook real meals from ingredients. Each recipe is labeled by skill level so you can choose what fits your experience and cook with confidence.
If you’re new to cooking, start with the Beginner Recipes. If you already cook regularly, browse by skill level or meal type. Recipes here are meant to be used, repeated, and adapted.
New to cooking from ingredients? Start with The Ingredient Kitchen for step-by-step lessons that explain the core ideas behind these recipes.
Beginner Recipes
These recipes work well alongside the early Ingredient Kitchen lessons. They focus on simple methods, flexible ingredients, and familiar meals. If you’re learning to cook from ingredients, this is the best place to start.
Intermediate Recipes
These recipes introduce more steps, timing awareness, or coordination between components. They’re a good next step once you’re comfortable building simple meals.
Advanced Recipes
These recipes are more involved or technique-heavy. They’re included for completeness and for cooks who enjoy more complex projects. If you’re new to cooking, these are optional and not part of the beginner path.
Browse by Meal Type
If you already know what you want to cook, you can browse recipes by category:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Sides
- Soups & Stews
- Baking
- Desserts
Using Recipes as Practice
- Start with beginner recipes and repeat them.
- Swap ingredients as needed.
- Use recipes as tools, not rules.
- Return to lessons whenever something feels unclear.
Cooking improves through repetition and small adjustments over time.
Helpful Cooking Resources
Looking for ways to support your cooking practice? These resources are designed to work alongside The Ingredient Kitchen and Recipes pages.
- The Ingredient Kitchen: Step-by-step lessons that explain how cooking from ingredients works.
- Recipes Index: Practical home cooking recipes labeled by skill level.
- Ingredient Kitchen Skills Progress Sheet: A simple checklist to track what you’ve learned.
- Pantry Starter Guide: A practical reference for building a flexible ingredient pantry.
Start simple, repeat what works, and build from there.
– Liz